TOPSPEED

I know my topic sounds very serious, because it is. I experienced near a death moment in my GS400 last night on my way home from work.

I was traveling around 65mph in the middle lane on I-95 south bound. One black coupe(can't tell which model it was) swang around me and tried to pass. I speed up, my car downshift to 3rd gear and started to accelerating. However, I felt that the gas padel dropped down and got locked, the engine went up to 5000 rpm and stucked there. It was like my car was in cruise control mode, except that i coundn't cancel it. It just kept on going faster and faster. I stepped on brake, yes, the brake was working, but the engine still stucked at 5000 rpm and was going strong. In short, my foot was applying full brake while the car was going at 85mph and gaining speed! Meanwhile, because the braking, the car went into very strong vibrations. I tried to downshift to lower gear to reduce speed( I realized afterwards, that I could had try shift into Neutral), but it was like the whole drive-line was acting by itself. The whole experience last for a good 4 to 5 minutes. And man, that was long! Running out of option, and car still wouldn't decrease in speed, I had to dial "911", but somehow, before the phone was connected, I magically reagin control of my car. The engine speed dropped to normal, but I felt the brake was getting very weak. I got off at the next exit and pulled into a gas staion. I got out the car and I can smell the brake was burning. I found the Right Front brake was fried and smoking.

Anyway, my car is at the dealer right now. They told me that the shop foreman is going to look at it , and they will treat it very seriously. I am now still in shocked about what happened last night. Did any one of you members have similar situation before? I just can't believe Lexus would have such problem like this. I am planning on calling the GM of this dealer ship and maybe even bring my case to Corperate level. What are your guys' opinion on this one? I would just like to hear from you guys out there. And meanwhile you may need to bring your car to have it check it out. I was lucky that I wasn't killed in my car, I sure hope no one will get into my situation again!

Any inputs will be appreciated!

topspeed from las vegas nevada

Ishinc

OH crap... thank God you're okay!

varcity64

iTrader: (2)

topspeed... i guess ur sn is appropriate for this post ... but more seriously, that is SOOOOOO scary, 4-5 MINUTES is a VEEEEEEEEEEEEEERY loooong time considering your speeds. its a good thing that you were on a major interstate at night and (im guessing) not a lot of cars. i would def. make a BIG deal about this b/c you are 100% right about near death. let us know what the dealer says and THANK GOD you lived to tell us about it.

babyGS3

WOW! good to see you made it through! only thing i can think of is that the drive by wire system had a bad malfunction. hope that this is not a sickness of the car...

~manny

TOPSPEED

Thank you to all! The most important thing is that most of you Lexus owners out there should have you cars checked out by your local dealers. We should work together and maybe make a nation wide recall on all the GS400s(1998-2000). I know it sounds like a big deal, but I think nothing is more important than a Human Life. All of the work to prevent one possible death, I beleive it is worth it! Since most of the GS400 owners are FAST drivers, no one can guarentee that smilar incident won't happen on another GS400 driver.

Thanks for your attentions again.

LexRoc

Damn!!!!! Scary story. Im glad you are here to post it.

Similar situation happened to me when I first got my license back in 89. I was driving my dads car (79 impala). Somehow, the floor mat was wedged under the gas pedal. The pedal got stuck and was almost floored. To this day, i dont know how I thought of it, but I put the car in neutral and slammed on the brakes. The engine RPM's were very high.....im surprised i didnt blow the engine. I brought the car to a stop, and dislodged the mat.

I think you are smart to get this checked out. Keep us posted.

Richie

Wow, that sounds like a very scarry situation. Thank god you regained controll of the car.
I would really like to know what caused this problem. Please share if they give you the info.

drwaldo69

Good to hear you are OK. Isn't the 2000 GS400 still a cable throttle setup? I think the 2001 GS430 is when they changed that. The cable got stuck in a 944 I had a long time ago but only at 4000rpm. I put it in neutral, and pulled over on the side of the highway. I had recently checked the oil and when I pulled the dipstick out it pulled the gas pedal cable out of the cable "cam" that the cable goes around. This sits on or near the throttle body under the hood in most cars. To me your car has to be the throttle linkage/cable that stuck open or caught on something . I would also try to get the dealer to replace your brake pads if your car still has a warranty. The 6yr/70000 engine warranty is for engine and driveline but in this case the engine malfunction fried your pads. Good luck

JPI Racing

I've seen this problem happen on an ES300 98. The throttle cable is stuck and we ended up replacing the whole cable. How come you didn't shift to Neutral? This could be a tranny related. GS is a good car and doesn't have that much problem. But Lexus is not perfect, Let us know how it turn out. I'd like to know myself. I'm glad you are ok.
JPI

salimshah

Terrible experience and glad you are fine.

Although there could be a problem with the throttle BUT the whole issue is really with the brakes. Brakes are the check and balance for speed or increased speed. Since you have gone through the harrowing experience and it is so fresh in your mind, you may find my comments insensitive. But do look at them objectively and you will find my statements to be balanced.

Corrective actions to reduce gaining of speed:
1. Stop delivery of fuel into the engine. Back off trottle.[Standard operating procedure (sop) ]
2. Disengage transfer of power to wheels.

Corrective action to reduce speed:
1*. Apply brakes [sop]
2. Use surroundings to dump momentum.

If the brakes did not stop you [4mins is too long], so what could be wrong with them.

1. The brakes system was already bad (wear/tear, maintainance, defect)
2. Gremlins [fleeting defects which do not reproduce and unortunately this could have happened when you needed to slow down]
3. Failure in the system at the time of need. The system includes the driver who has to depress the brake pedal.

Can you shed some light on previous condition of brakes?
Any thing that could have prevented depressing the brake pedal?

Salim

3dog

iTrader: (1)

did you ever think about turning the motor off?

DaveGS4

iTrader: (2)

Very glad you're safe after such a harrowing experience! I disagree that the problem is with the brakes... any time you 'power brake' at speed or do enough aggressive driving / braking you're creating a huge amount of heat to the entire brake system. After it gets heated up enough, any warp in the rotor is magnified through your pedal. You might need to get your brake rotors turned or resurfaced, but if you don't feel it during your normal driving (e.g. not crazy emergency manuevers), it probably isn't needed yet.

For the problem, I'd first look at the obvious answers... the only time something similar happened to me in my GS was in my garage and it was totally my fault. My foot was still partially on the gas pedal when I swiveled it over to the brake. Very scary. I've also had it happen in an old Pontiac the the floor mat got wedged into the gas pedal.

Like you said, there are a couple of options when this happens... shift to neutral or even just take the key and turn the car off. Neutral is probably a better option as turning it off would make you lose power steering and brake assists, but even that is better than uncontrolled acceleration.

TTurboPimp

iTrader: (12)

I agree with Dave on this, the problem here does not sound like the brakes. I dont car what kind of brakes you have on your car, you would be asking alot of them to stop a car going down the highway at those speeds while floored......they will burn up before they stop the car.

3dog

iTrader: (1)

dave you're right i forgot about losing the power steering and brake assist.
3dog

mikeyboy

i had a similar problem...my gas pedal got stuck under the floor mat! i didnt realize it and slammed at the brakes. Shifted to neutral and turned off the car